John Terry has explained how he always believed that Andreas Christensen could make it at senior level for Chelsea.

The Blues legend sat down with Chelsea’s Youtube channel, among others such as Gary Cahill and first-team coach Eddie Newton, to offer their verdicts on the meteoric rise of the centre-back.

Christensen has enjoyed a breakthrough campaign in Chelsea’s starting lineup after he returned from a two-year loan spell with Borussia Monchengladbach, and has been tipped to replace Terry as the club’s leading defensive light for many seasons to come.

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It is a mantle that Terry thinks the 21-year-old can assume, and admitted that he had expected big things of Christensen from the moment he saw him train with the first team.

Terry said: “I took him under my wing at an early age. He’s a great kid whose got a great attitude so every time he’d come across he’d pick my brains and other defenders’ brains.

“What I liked about him was the confidence he had in him – that he could be part of this. When a younger player comes into the group as well it takes a good few sessions for them to be accepted as the standard is so high.

Incredible to think that Chelsea owned Andreas Christensen during all these years that Gary Cahill has been lumbering around the pitch like a wounded giraffe.

— SportsJOE (@SportsJOE_UK) December 2, 2017

“Once you go ‘Wow, this boy can play’ and you get that green light from the group then your confidence will grow even more.

“He’s very comfortable on the ball and you can see that with this new generation of players too. He’s happy to take and receive the ball under pressure.

“When you compare him to other players in his age group, there’s not many who have gone to that level and played that amount of games.”

Also, Andreas Christensen has started the following:

Tottenham AAtlético AMan City HRoma HMan Utd HLiverpool A

With just one defeat in there (to the best team in the PL by a clear margin). He’s legit and he’s here to stay.

— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) November 27, 2017

Christensen – who puts his experience at Gladbach down to how well he has taken to Premier League football since his return – was also praised to the hilt by current teammate Cahill.

His fellow centre-half went on to state that Christensen’s natural ability had helped him settle into the picture under manager Antonio Conte and revealed why he considered the Dane to be an exceptional talent.

Cahill added: “You know you don’t have to bark orders or pull him everywhere. You feel he has a good understanding of his position.

“The biggest compliment I can give him is that you can leave him to do his role and worry about what you’re doing. When you play with a young boy you usually have to tell him where to be, whereas with him you don’t feel like you have to do that.”